UPDATE 1-Com Dev hopes to top 2009 revenue forecasts - CEO

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

* Com Dev expects “a good year”, says CEO

* Government, commercial businesses holding up well - CEO

By Wojtek Dabrowski

TORONTO, April 21 (Reuters) - Canadian satellite technology company Com Dev International (CDV.TO) is aiming to top its fiscal 2009 revenue forecast of at least 10 percent growth as the space industry continues to hold up in the face of the recession, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

“Clearly, we have ambitions of doing a little better than that,” CEO John Keating told Reuters in an interview. He added that, based on talks with customers and on internal gauges of business activity, including Com Dev’s record C$189 million ($153.7 million) backlog, “we think we’re going to have a good year.”

In addition to the backlog, “we have another C$37 million of orders that were really in the pipe but we haven’t finalized the bookings of them yet,” he said. “That’s a very strong number.”

About half of Cambridge, Ontario-based Com Dev’s business comes from governments, while the rest is commercial satellite technology, mostly related to distribution of television signals.

“The government stuff is in very good shape,” Keating said, adding the commercial side of the business is also “pretty solid.”

Com Dev’s commercial unit is seeing a boost thanks to the fact that a number of satellites built in the 1990s are currently being replaced, Keating said.

Com Dev shares were unchanged at C$3.60 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

$1=$1.23 Canadian
Reporting by Wojtek Dabrowski; editing by Rob Wilson